


Chicken Noodle Soup for the Soul

by DarkWitchOfErie



Series: Iron Family [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Gen, Genderfluid Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Tony Stark Coparenting Peter Parker, Multi, Pepper and Rhodey are parental figures too, Pre-Relationship, Tony Stark Acting as Harley Keener's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Trans Peter Parker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 15:22:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21590311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkWitchOfErie/pseuds/DarkWitchOfErie
Summary: In which the kids get sick, are staying together at the Tower because May’s busy working, and they both accidentally call Tony ‘Dad’.This can be read as a oneshot instead of with the rest of the series.
Relationships: Harley Keener & Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Harley Keener/Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark
Series: Iron Family [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1556011
Comments: 2
Kudos: 197





	Chicken Noodle Soup for the Soul

**Author's Note:**

> It's not necessary to read the other fic in this series to understand it, but it is helpful to read this fic to know about things that happen mid-way through chapter 3 of 'They Ain't Worth Missing'.

They were curled up on opposite sides of the couch, each cocooned in his own blankets, staring at whatever was playing on Netflix. Both kids had come home from school two days earlier with the sniffles which, by the next morning, had turned into a full-blown cold complete with a hacking cough and fever hovering around 101. They weren’t the only Midtown students to get so sick. In fact, so many students and faculty members had called out sick, that they’d canceled school for the week, saying they’d make it up at the end of the year with an extra week.

Harley turned his head to face Peter. The other teen wasn’t looking at him, so he nudged him with his toes. “Hm?” Peter rolled his head, so he was looking over at him.

“Where’s Dad?”

“No ‘dea. FRIDAY, where’s Dad?”

“Boss is in the kitchen behind you. Shall I call him for you?”

“Dad!” They both yelled, as best as they could. Which sent them both into a coughing fit. Though he didn’t respond at first, Tony did walk into the room with a bewildered look on his face before either of them stopped coughing.

“Dad! Found ‘im,” Peter said to Harley with a grin.

“Did not. FRIDAY told us where he was. Dad, we need soup.”

“Yeah. Bu’ no’ the fancy stuff.”

“No fancy soup,” Harley shook his head. “Campbell’s chicken noodle.”

“Yes.” Came Peter’s wide-eyed and enthusiastic agreement.

Tony looked up at Pepper and Rhodey standing in the doorway of the kitchen with wide eyes. Both his partners just smiled at him and waited. “Okay,” he looked back at the sick children. “Campbell’s chicken noodle soup it is. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

In a daze, Tony left the room, grabbed his coat, headed down the elevator and into a nearby bodega. It was cold, windy, and probably about to snow again, but two of the most important people in his life needed soup. And asked _him_ for it. And called him _Dad_. He was pretty sure the man at the register could have charged him $1,000 per can for the 12 cans of soup he bought, and he wouldn’t have noticed. They’d called him ‘Dad’. More than once!

He made it back up to the kitchen, set the bags on the counter and pulled out a pot before he realized he had a problem. “I’ve never made soup before!”

“We know,” Rhodey and Pepper were sitting at the island, waiting for him. “You only need one can right now.” Neither of them offered to do it for him, but Rhodey walked him through heating the soup from his seat. While the soup heated, his partners finally stood up and came over to stand on either side of him.

“You could’ve sent Happy for that soup. He’s already downstairs and watched you leave. He called us, concerned because you didn’t answer when he called out to you,” Pepper said.

Tony nodded – he knew that. But, “They called me ‘dad’. Both of them.” Both of his partners smiled at him and slid an arm around him from each side.

“That’s pretty much what we figured you say,” Rhodey leaned up slightly and kissed Tony’s temple. “In about five minutes, you’ll want to test the soup and make sure it’s hot. Split it into two bowls and take it out to your children.”

A couple hours later, when both kids were asleep on the couch, Tony left the Tower for May’s apartment. He knew she worked all day, but it was almost 8 pm and he hoped she’d be back by then. Maybe he should have called first. He was about to get back into the car and do just that when a voice came from his left.

“Help me carry these upstairs,” and bags were being pushed into his hands. He turned to see May standing there, carrying the rest of her grocery bags. He nodded and followed her up to her apartment. “Is Peter still alright? His cold hasn’t gotten any worse, has it?”

“He’s good. Sleeping currently. Had some soup earlier.” He dropped the bags onto the countertop and just stared at them. “Called me ‘dad’”.

“Peter called you ‘dad’? To your face?”

“More than on – to my face?” Tony finally looked up at May to see her smiling at him.

“He usually does it when he’s too tired to stand up. I asked him about it once and he said that was the reason he calls you Mr. Stark instead of Tony. He said that way he won’t accidentally let it slip while he’s with you and make you feel awkward.”

“I don’t feel awkward.”

“Good. So, are we going to work out a more permanent joint custody schedule or continue to let him come and go as he pleases?” May laughed at the expression on his face. “Personally, I think it’s working out pretty well the way we have it set up now. I’ll call the school tomorrow and put you on all of his emergency contact paperwork.” Tony just nodded, more than a little dumbfounded at her easy acceptance of the situation they now found themselves in. Or rather, the situation she’d always known was coming and he’d been blind-sided by.

While Happy drove him back to the Tower, he called his attorney. Harley’s turn and he expected this wasn’t going to go nearly as smoothly. They got stuck behind an accident on the way, so by the time they made it back to the Tower, he’d been on with the attorney for more than two hours. He walked up into the common area to see Pepper and Rhodey sitting together on the couch opposite Peter and Harley. He smiled at them but left the room so as not to wake the kids.

He finally hung up with the attorney and turned to see Pepper and Rhodey had followed him and were waiting expectantly for him to fill them in. “According to May, this isn’t the first time Peter has called me ‘dad’. It’s usually when he’s too tired to stop himself. Also, we apparently already have joint custody but she’s going to put me on all of his emergency contact paperwork.” He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “That was Michael on the phone, who explained that what Harley’s mom has done is child abandonment and, in fact, a crime. But because she lives in a tiny southern town that shares her views on gay people, they may not want to prosecute her for it. And, with Abbie at home, it might be better if we go down and convince her to sign away her rights to him and give him to me. It would certainly be the faster option. So, I’ll wait until he’s not feverish anymore and ask Harley what he wants to do.”

Two days later, the kids were mostly back to normal. They were both still congested and still coughed some, but their fevers had broken, they weren’t as tired, and both reported that their bodies didn’t hurt so much. Tony had decided to learn to make a good chicken noodle soup and had been assured by every website he visited that it wasn’t that difficult. So far, he’d failed the first two times he tried. The first time, he’d over-salted it and it came out tasting terrible. The second time, he’d been impatient and boiled it and overcooked it. This time was going to be perfect.

He heard one of the kids walk into the kitchen behind him and waited. “What’re you making, Mr. Stark?”

“Nope, absolutely not!” He turned and pointed the spoon at Penny, who was finally feeling well enough to declare her gender instead of letting everyone default to assuming her gender. “Just because you’re feeling better now, does not mean you don’t get to call me ‘dad’. It’s too late. May and I already worked out a joint custody thing.”

Though he was watching her, he was wholly surprised when she surged forward and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. Tony set the spoon on the counter and wrapped his arms around her, holding on tight. That was how Harley found them when he walked in a couple minutes later.

“What’s cooking? And which of you is cooking it?”

“As much chicken noodle soup as the two of you have gone through in the last three days, I decided to learn to make it myself. This is my third try.”

“Smells good,” he commented.

“How’re you feeling today?”

“Better. Why what’s up? Need help in the lab?”

“Absolutely not. Neither of you is allowed in the lab until you stop sneezing and coughing. Got something I need to talk to you about. Your situation is more intense than Penny’s, so there’s stuff I need your opinion on.” Tony told him everything Michael had explained and offered the two options they had – try to prosecute his mother for abandoning him or get her to sign over her rights to Tony. Penny stepped out of his embrace while he was talking and went to sit beside Harley. As such, she was the only one who noticed Pepper and Rhodey enter the room.

“Wait, you want to adopt me?”

“Listen, you’re already mine. You both are, but Penny already has a really great legal guardian and I don’t want to take anything away from May. You, however, do not have a great legal guardian. And…. Yes, I want to make it legal.”

If he’d been feeling better, Harley may have tried to vault over the island. As it was, he scrambled around it and latched onto Tony in much the same way Penny had. “Wait, what about Pepper and Rhodey? How do they feel about all this?”

“We’re happy to have you, Harley,” Rhodey spoke up from where they were standing, behind Penny.

“Happy to have both of you,” Pepper ran her hand through Penny’s hair. The newly declared family came together in front of the stove, hugging each other. As they finally stepped back from each other, Pepper grinned and cocked her head slightly to the side. “Is now a good time to mention that we’ll be expanding this family in a few months?” she asked, placing a hand on her lower abdomen. Shouts of excitement rang from the rest of them and she just laughed, soaking it in.

Thankfully, the soup was on a slow simmer and didn’t burn while Tony wasn’t paying attention to it.


End file.
